Festival to End All Festivals
by SereneMelodie
Summary: It's the biggest Grand Festival there's ever been! May and Dawn have decided to compete, with their friends at their sides. But the biggest event is fueling a nasty plot to overturn the Festival and take control. Rating may change.
1. Chapter 1

I love being meticulous. And I hope I can get my facts straight, but if I mess up I'm going along with it. Also, anybody who is present in the anime AND games will be based off their videogame canon with the exception of Brock. Extra names may be added since I don't even know who will come!

* * *

"Welcome to another Grand Festival!" The crowd cheered, forcing Marian to raise her voice a bit.

"Thank you for joining us in the beautiful Sunyshore City! And now, I would to introduce our judges! As always, we are joined by Mr. Contesta, Mr. Sukizo, and Sunyshore City's Nurse Joy! However, we have three special guest judges. Please welcome the Top Coordinators Raine, Solidad and Zoey!"

The three girls ended up in spotlight. All of them were dressed their best. Zoey looked unchanged, with her scarlet hair ruffled, nervously shrugging a little. Solidad smiled sweetly and waved, while the final girl, Raine, glanced around imperiously, looking a little grave but excited.

"This Grand Festival is a double performance! The first round will be as usual, with a performance stage! We will have three separate arenas at once, each with two judges. The judges will evaluate the performances and the top 64 contestants will progress to the battle round! Whoever wins all of their battles will be awarded the prestigious Ribbon Cup!"

Watching from inside the waiting room, Dawn and May looked anxious. Both had decided to enter the Grand Festival in Sunyshore, but neither of them had known that their Top Coordinator rivals were going to be their judges.

"I had no idea that they were..." Dawn murmured, hugging Piplup to her chest.

May shook her head and stared at the screen, "I'm not worried about Solidad. Have you heard about Raine? She's won the Grand Festival three times in a row. It's going to be hard to impress her."

"You're going to be great." Max replied. He was confident in his sister's skills by now, having seen May pull off so many victories in other regions. "She has to pick 64 and you're going to get in. Promise."

"I don't think anyone can overlook both of your skills. May is a Grand Festival semi-finalist and Dawn won the Wallace Cup as well as being a Grand Festival finalist." Brock nodded.

A man came through the crowd and began to announce names. A hundred contestants would head to the B arena and another hundred would go to the C arena. A final hundred coordinators were staying at the A arena.

It was here where the two girls parted. Ash gave Dawn a high five as she left to go to the B arena. Brock joined Dawn for moral support, but they were haggled by Ursula, who popped up behind them and started teasing Dawn.

"Hey Dee Dee."

"Hello to you too, Ursula."

"Another stroke of luck. How lucky can you be? If you're lucky, I will get to beat you!" she sneered and laughed.

Dawn glared in return. "I'm beating you. I'll beat you even harder in return, so hard that they will wonder how you passed the first round!"

Meanwhile, May noticed that Drew happened to be sitting in the waiting room as well, looking at her. May shuddered nervously and forced conversation with Ash and Max.

Dawn's performance went off with no hitches. She was judged well by Mr. Suziko and Solidad, managing to display her Quilava and Pachirisu. The tips of the electricity glimmered with the flames from Quilava skillfully jumping the electricity with Flame Wheel. Mr. Suziko commented with his usual "Remarkable!" and Solidad said how the display was two powerful elements but so beautiful. A few people were jealous as she left the stage, not excepting Ursula and Nando, who had also attended.

Losing her nerve slightly, May had her Glaceon and Beautifly make it snow in the Sunyshore sky with Silver Wind and Ice Shard, but scrapped through the ending with the Iron Tail-Morning Sun combination not as dazzling as rehearsed. However, it managed to impress Raine, who smiled.

The other performances included Kenny's successful Flash Cannon-Whirlpool fusion, Nando making music notes flutter around the stadium with Psychic, Ursula's Wormadam and Gabite dancing in sandstorms, Drew creating an elegant flying show with Masquerain and Flygon and Harley's Carturne and Wigglytuff enchanting with their dark and mystic abilities. The Grand Festival was filled with glimmers and shines, brimming with excitement. At the end of all 300 performances, 64 were to be chosen. There was a tense thread pulled taught inside of everyone, and 236 strings were going to be snapped before the end of the day.

Everyone returned to the middle arena for the announcement of the 64 who would advance to the next stage. The judges stood on a raised platform underneath the board, next to the golden Ribbon Cup. The coordinators stood on the battlefield, looking up at scoreboard. The air was waiting. Everything was waiting.

"The judges have finally decided on the contestants who will move onto the battle round!" Marian said suddenly. Eyes that had been focused on twiddling thumbs flicked up.

Raine was handed the microphone, "We would just like to say that we had a very hard time picking out the contestants who would progress, but everyone did a fantastic job."

"And with that, here are the contestants who will move onto the next round!"

All of the coordinators searched the sea of faces for theirs. Dawn bit her lip and May clenched her fists, but their worries were assuaged. Both saw themselves within the 64, as well as Drew, Harley, Nando, Ursula and Kenny. Sighs of relief met with cries of defeat.

"That is all! We will continue the first round of battles tomorrow! Thank you!"

"You seemed surprised to have gotten in, May." Drew commented lazily as he walked past Dawn and May.

May spun around and laughed awkwardly, "Who wouldn't be nervous? I mean, it's the Grand Festival. Only lost it two times!"

Drew flipped his hair, smirking back. "You've gotten better. Hope I see you at the end."

May crossed her arms and turned to Dawn, "Who does he think he is?"

"I think he just wants to compliment you, May." Solidad was coming through the dispersing crowd, followed by Zoey and Raine.

Dawn chirped, "Hey Zoey! Why did they bring you to the Grand Festival?"

"They changed the rules a little and decided to make Top Coordinators more involved in the Grand Festival. They also don't want us competing all the time." Zoey nodded to Raine.

"I'm perfectly entitled to my wins. And once I stop judging, I'll just go back to being a contestant." Raine waved her hand lazily. "Don't celebrate too early though. You've got to win six more times. More than usual."

"There's a lot of coordinators this year. It's exciting!" Zoey smiled. "And I'm not giving special favors, Dawn!"

"You kidding me? I'll get to the final round fair and square and then I'll pull off a performance so amazing that you won't even be able to judge it!"

"Calm down, all of you." Solidad laughed. "Let's wait until the competition starts!"

"Why don't we go to the beach?" May suggested. "It's a great day for it, isn't it? Let's bring Ash and the others too."

"I have somewhere to be, sorry." Raine graciously bowed herself out of the conversation.

No duh there's more contestants than usual, Raine thought. They better keep on their toes or they'll be in trouble, especially since the coming crowd...

"Nice meeting you here, Melody." a voice called out from the shadows. Raine had self-consciously walked herself to the rendezvous-point. Her partner was waiting for her.

"We've gone through this, N. I'm supposed to be here. Besides, I've got to be here for a reason. The only thing is that you don't have an alibi. That's why we can't see you in public."

I had to get used to him talking fast but there were times when he talked too fast for me to understand. "Excuse me?"

"They're here, aren't they? It's like some big party for them, huh? The biggest event of the year besides the League competition and people from around the world are here."

"Champions like Lance and Cynthia, professors like Oak and Juniper, gym leaders Fantina and Winona, everyone is watching, if not present in the city. Then there's people like me and you, it's a wonder how they think they can pull this off."

"They don't think they can, trust me, but Father may have strong-armed them into this. I remember him commenting about a boy whose friends would be competing, and he is the only one who has bested all of them. So it might not just be domination, but revenge. And that is deadly fuel."

"Who's in the strike force again?"

* * *

My first upload, my first piece. It's going to be multi-chapter or at least I hope. Please review/follow or whatever. I'm new. Love you.


	2. Chapter 2

"Who's in the strike force again?"

"I know my father is, the Shadow Triad, a freelance phantom thief, some crazy scientist, everything we need for disaster. And I only met those people before I left on a 'trip', so he might've gathered more people."

"The last thing we need is the contestants to get hurt. I mean, they are the best but we may not be able to prevent their advance. We're not as strong as League contestants."

N smiled a bit. "Maybe you're not, but you're better to your friends than some. I mean, they like you. Some other people beat theirs around and..."

A flash of light emitted from Raine's pocket. One of her Pokemon, Froslass, fell out. It was lucky the ball had no seals on it at the moment, for their quiet place might've been found. Froslass glided up to N and put her arm gently onto his mouth, as if trying to shut him up.

N chuckled and drew away from Froslass's cold touch.

"Froslass is trying to tell you that we've heard you talk about this a million times now."

"I don't need you to tell me what she means."

"Of course." Raine quickly changed the subject. "Do you want to take her with you? She's a good lookout and I don't need her at proceedings or anything."

"I've got my friends here too." Natural nodded toward his belt, which sported an unfamiliar row of Pokeballs. He never kept them in Pokeballs, preferring to let them be in their habitats and go to find them when necessary.

Raine eyed them suspiciously, "Who did you bring?" She knew that N had gotten serious about this. He never put his Pokemon through anything close to captivity, so why was he now?

"A variety. Some Pokemon for mobility, some for battling, everyone of them has their own skills. They all have a quality the others don't."

"Teams have to be made around that principle, so I know." Raine was getting tired, the day had been long. It had been especially hard to sift through all those competitors.

"How was judging?" N winked at her, seemingly reading her exhausted mind.

"More nerve-wracking than performing, somehow. Some people pulled off things I had already seen before so I kind of judged them low on that. And then Coordinators were being jumpy so their Pokemon were affected. Some of the Pokemon looked as if they weren't treated well. Let me say though, nobody got into the next round if they sucked."

"There are a lot of participants this year."

"Of course there are. You and I know this best. There's probably at least one or two people who are in this competition for your father."

N grimaced. "Definitely should be. And even worse is that if those people get eliminated."

"From here on out, I have less power in who goes and who doesn't. The Coordinators are battling and I can't interfere with the battles. I mean, I could but that would be cheating..."

"We're not going to be cheating. However, we will need to know who is working for Ghetsis and who isn't."

N snatched up one of his Pokemon. He sent out Leafeon, who jumped happily at being released and meeting N's eye, dashed away purposefully.

"I brought some Pokemon that wouldn't look too suspicious."

"She's scouting?"

"She tells me that she's been to this city with her past trainer so she knows it well."

"Good." Raine let out her hair unconsciously and played with it.

"We'll meet up at eleven tonight then? Can you risk getting down to the beach? I'll be by in a large rock, sort of looks like a Glalie mixed with a Golem."

"That's fine. I'll see you then. Isn't there a event for Coordinators in a couple minutes? A meeting of sorts?" N inquired, even though he knew the answer. Raine was antsy to leave, checking her watch nervously. Someone might be suspicious if the all-mighty judge was late.

Raine had already pulled out Togekiss's Pokeball and put her finger on the button. She nodded anxiously and sent Togekiss out, climbing onto her back and whispering to her, "Hey Zenda, get there as fast as possible, please?" Zenda churred, pushed Raine's legs up on her back and took off.

* * *

Who ever has been reading this, I love you. A third chapter is coming right away. Read and review please. ~Serene


	3. Chapter 3

Raine arrived with about thirty seconds to spare. The fountain square was generously lit up and the beach was full of lanterns. She noticed some participants that she had approved of earlier today. Acquaintances were speaking, friends were laughing, and light-heart anticipation was in the air. Raine noticed May, one of the only girls who managed to surprise her. Her combination could be executed better, but it was versatile and original. Most likely not very powerful, but beautiful.

Someone was waving at Raine, a tall man with oval glasses and neatly-parted hair. He was joined by a sweet girl with a green beret.

"Cheren! Bianca!" Raine exclaimed. She had traveled with them, similar to the way May and Dawn had traveled with Ash.

"Melody! How nice to see you!" Cheren replied sarcastically. "We obviously flew all the way to Sinnoh for no reason!"

"Of course we were going to come see you, even if you weren't competing," Bianca smiled brightly, balanced on her toes in such a way that she was likely to trip any second, "but judging is hard."

"They made the rules to prevent me from competing. It would be difficult for anybody else to have a chance!" Raine laughed. Cheren rolled his eyes at her arrogance, but he wasn't one to talk. "But some people this year are shaping up to be good candidates for the final round."

Bianca had made a slight distraction by flinging a boy into a fountain. Cheren and Raine turned around quickly, and noticed who was climbing out, sopping wet. Raine had never seen him before, but she thought she knew who he was. Those Coordinators May and Dawn (...?) had been talking about him before. It was Ash.

Cheren began to laugh, "So, that's Ash! Bianca's told me all about him. He's a good trainer, I've heard. I want to battle him sometime, but it looks like he won't be up to it until his clothes dry."

"Settle your battle desires later. Have you got any information for me?"

"They are here in the city, definitely. I managed to stop one of their transmissions, but I couldn't tell from who to who. It said, 'tell him to work for us or else. We know who to hold hostage.' Who do you think is being forced against their will?"

"Great. We'll need to keep on our feet. Anybody who shows suspicious activity-"

"Raine." Zoe had suddenly appeared by her side. "Let me introduce you to Ash and my friends. I didn't have time to do so before." She seemed to not suspect anything, but she might have overheard. Raine nodded covertly to Cheren and followed Zoe over.

"Hey guys!" Zoe chirped, "You all know who this is, but I'd like to introduce you."

"Oh. Right, hello, my name is Raine Melody Aldaien, and I'm one of the judges."

"Hi, my name is Ash. I'm from Pallet Town, and this is my partner, Pikachu!" Pikachu replied with a sweet 'chuuuu'

"I'm May."

"Dawn, nice to meet you."

"Max. Aren't you super famous-"

"Brock, my darling, but call me any name, for no matter what you say, I will be at your side-!"

Max took charge of the punishment this time, smashing Brock into the concrete and dragging him away. He moaned pitifully. Raine giggled and smiled.

"You're the only three-time Grand Festival winner, right?" May asked brightly

Raine blushed, embarrassed, "Yes, but it wasn't easy work. I'm still going for five, but the judges don't think it's fair to everybody to have me in the competitions every time, that's why they set up the extra Top Coordinator judges."

"Raine," Dawn added, "what region do you come from?"

"I used to live in Unova, but I traveled to Hoenn and Kanto when I got older. That's how I got my first two Ribbon Cups. My last one was here, actually."

"That's super cool!" Max had reappeared, with Brock rubbing his head dazedly.

Ash jumped in, his clothes swapped one of his older outfits. He enthusiastically shouted "Raine, you're really strong and famous right? I can't miss this chance! I challenge you to a battle!"

"A battle? A contest battle?"

"A full six on six battle, I'm sure." Cheren had come back. He met her eyes jealously, but all she did was smirk back.

"I wish we had time for a six on six, but it's getting late. How about two on two?" Raine said nervously. "I'm not backing down from the challenge but I'll need to be ready in the morning."

"That's fine." Ash replied.

"Hey, I want a battle with Raine too!" Dawn shouted.

"I'll have battles with everyone," she smiled, "but Ash asked first."


End file.
